The Financial Conduct Authority has lifted the restrictions on Germany’s Wirecard, allowing payments to continue.
After the company collapsed last week, the FCA banned Wirecard Card Services leaving thousands of people across the UK locked out of their accounts on Friday.
The FCA said in a statement: “We have been working closely with Wirecard UK and other authorities over the last few days to ensure that the firm was able to meet certain conditions required to lift the restrictions we imposed on it.”
“We are now in a position to allow Wirecard to resume operational activity. This means customers will now, or very shortly, be able to use their cards as usual,” the FCA added.
Wirecard’s German parent company filed for insolvency amid a £1.7bn alleged accounting fraud. Markus Braun, the former boss, has been arrested after he was accused of inflating Wirecard’s finances to make them appear more attractive to investors. Braun has been bailed from police custody after posting a deposit of €5m on Tuesday.
The UK watchdog said it chose to freeze accounts in order to protect customers’ cash.
The UK operations of the company has said itis working closely with the FCA. The company said:
“There may be a delay before all card programmes are fully operational, so some customers could find themselves unable to transact immediately but we anticipate this lasting no longer than 24 hours. We apologise for the inconvenience to our valued customers that the temporary suspension caused.”
